Kenneth
JandaPolitical Parties: A Cross-National SurveyNew York: The Free
Press, 1980: pp. 336-338FRANCE: The Party System in 1950-1957 and
1958-19621

(Text
as published in 1980 citation above)

Following the expulsion of the German
invaders in World War II, General Charles de Gaulle led a
provisional government of France until he resigned in 1946
over the shape of the new French government. The
Constitution creating the Fourth Republic was adopted by
referendum in October 1946.Governmental power was
centered in the National Assembly, with a prime minister
dependent on majority support in parliament. As feared by de
Gaulle and others, multiparty politics, along with
structural features in the Constitution, resulted in
considerable cabinet instability and frequent change of
governments throughout the life of the Fourth Republic

Five major political parties, some minor
ones, and many "independents" were represented in parliament
throughout the life of the Fourth Republic, which extended
throughout the first half of our time period. From left to
right, the major parties are usually identified as the
Communist (PCF), Socialist (SFIO), Radical, Socialist,
Popular Republican Movement (MRP), and Gaullists organized
first into the Rally of the French People (RPF) and then the
Union for the New Republic (UNR). None of these parties ever
claimed a majority in the Assembly during the Fourth
Republic, and maneuvers to establish governing coalitions
occurred among the non-Communist centrist parties acting to
exclude from government the Communists, who consistently
constituted one of the largest blocs of deputies. The
non-Communist parties could not agree among and within
themselves enough to offset the permanent opposition of the
large and well-disciplined Communist bloc, which voted
against all governments and most policies. The result was
governmental paralysis, often referred to as "immobilisme."
For a time during the Fourth Republic, de Gaulle attempted
to exercise political leadership through his own party, the
RPF, whose mission, like that of the Communists, was to
oppose the government. But the Gaullist purpose was to
create conditions conducive to governmental reform and
strong executive leadership. When the strategy failed to
achieve its purposes, de Gaulle quit the leadership of the
RPF and retired from party politics, leaving the country to
its just deserts.

The political situation deteriorated to
the point of virtual collapse. Faced with threat of an army
coup d'état, the government resigned in late May
1958, and de Gaulle was called from retirement to serve as
premier in June. By September, he won a referendum on his
Constitution for the Fifth Republic. The new government
invested strong powers in a president elected by an
electoral college. Deputies pledged to de Gaulle were
organized into the UNR and won the largest bloc of seats in
the November elections, while the Communists, disadvantaged
by the electoral system, emerged as the smallest of the
major parties in the Assembly. The Fifth Republic brought an
era of government stability in stark contrast to the
instability of the Fourth Republic. De Gaulle was elected
president and Michel Debré was appointed prime
minister. Debré lasted until his resignation in April
1962, when he was succeeded by George S. Pompidou. Pompidou
lost a vote of confidence in October 1962, but the
subsequent elections gave the Gaullists an absolute majority
in the Assembly and Pompidou was reappointed prime minister.
Our period closes with France governed by a strong president
backed by a party in control of the legislature--a far
different situation from the beginning of the period.

Continuity
and Change since 1962

France
displayed more volatility in its party politics since 1950
than most Western nations. Of the five French parties that
qualified for the original study, only three continued to
participate vigorously in electoral politics in subsequent
elections. Another has staggered from election to election
into oblivion. The other has faded from public view more
silently, but many of its activists have returned under one
of the two new parties that have met the study's criteria of
strength and stability for party activity since 1962.

Original
Parties, Terminated

111
Popular Republican Movement. Electoral fortunes
of the MRP declined steadily from 1946 to 1962, the last
year it visibly participated in elections. It is not
possible to fix an exact date of passing, but we regard it
as terminating around 1967, when the party urged its embers
to join the Center Democrats in contesting elections
(Keesing's Contemporary Archives, September 7-14,1968, p.
22898).

112
Radical Socialist Party. It can be argued that e
Radical Party did not terminate, for there was still a
Radical headquarters in Paris after its stated demise rears
1977, p. 79). But survival of the party name does of
indicate survival of the party, and the Radical Party the
1950s must be regarded as different from the Radical parties
of the late 1960s. A venerable centrist party in the Third
and Fourth Republic that is still strong in many local
governments, the Radicals declined parliamentary strength
under the Fifth Republic and 1965 joined with the Socialists
in a Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left (FGDS).
Some Radicals rejected this alliance with socialism,
however, and ran instead as Democratic Center candidates in
the 1967 and 1968 elections. The split of the Radicals into
left and center-right parties was further defined in 1972,
with the formation of the Movement of Left Radicals (MRG),
which supported the common program of the Socialist and
Communist parties (McInnes 1977, p. 19). With "Radical"
candidates on both sides of opposing alliances in all the
parliamentary elections since 1967, the reality of the
situation requires acknowledging the demise of the "old"
Radical Party in 1967, although its passing was not
certified until the split of 1972.

Original
Parties, Continuing

113
Socialist Party. Originally the French Section of
the Workers' International (SFIO), the party was reorganized
in 1969 and renamed simply the Socialist Party. Although it
joined with Radicals in 1965 in an alliance called the
Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left (FGDS),
which changed to the Union of the Socialist and Democratic
Left (UGSD) in 1972, the Socialist Party maintained its
identity throughout our time period.

114
Gaullist Party. As in the 1950-1962 period, the
Gaullists functioned under several names. In late 1962, they
acquired the support of the Democratic Union of Labor (UDT)
and became known as the UNR-UDT. In 1967, the party was
reorganized under Georges Pompidou, de Gaulle's prime
minister, as the Union of Democrats for the Fifth Republic
(UDVe) to contest the 1967 parliamentary election. After the
disorders of May 1968 and in preparation for the June
elections, they emerged as the Union for the Defense of the
Republic (UDR). While still known as the UDR for the 1973
elections, the Gaullists joined with two other parties in an
electoral alliance called the Union of Republicans for
Progress (URP). Proving that keeping the UDR label for two
elections was not habit-forming, the Gaullists were
reorganized by Jacques Chirac in 1976 as the Rally for the
Republic (RPR). In view of this bewildering sequence of name
changes, we are fortunate that the "Gaullists" survived de
Gaulle's death, for the term greatly simplifies reference to
the party, if not its ideology.

115
Communist Party. Unlike the more pragmatic
Italian Communist Party, the French Communist Party retained
its hard-line, Stalinist character, even defending the 1968
Soviet suppression of the democratizing tendencies in
Czechoslovakia. [Editor's note: Reference to the
French Communist Party as a continuing party was
inexplicably omitted from the 1980 book; so this paragraph
is new on the electronic version.]

New
Parties, Continuing

116
Democratic Center. The Democratic Center (CD) was
formed in 1966 by Jean Lecanuet to contest the 1967
parliamentary elections. Its victorious CD deputies formed a
parliamentary group called Progress and Modern Democracy
(PDM), and the party contested the 1968 elections as the
Center for Progress and Modern Democracy, using the label
Centre-PDM. Joined by a few Radicals, the party contested
the 1973 election as the Reform Movement (MR). Then in 1976,
Lecanuet's group of Center Democrats was rejoined by a group
of former CD deputies who had bolted to the government
majority as the Center for Democracy and Progress (CDP).
This reunion resulted in the Center of Social Democrats
(CDS). Lecanuet was president of CDS, which was composed of
many old MRP activists but virtually no former Radical
allies from the Reform Movement (Frears 1977, pp. 75-76).
However, the Radicals and the CNIP, along with the
Giscardien Republican Party (PR), joined Lecanuet's group
again in 1978 in a new version of their 1966 Democratic
Center. The new group, with Lecanuet once more as president,
was called the Union for French Democracy (UDF) and welcomed
non-Gaullist majority candidates in the 1978 elections. The
UDF alliance with Lecanuet as president was formalized in
March as a federation of its constituent parties (Keesings
Contemporary Archives, November 24, 1978 p. 29327). Because
such coalitions have led short lives in the past, we view
the UDF as an alliance rather than a new party, but time may
prove us wrong.

117
Republican Party. The Republican Party is regarded as
originating in 1966 as the Independent Republicans (RI). The
RI descended from the loose association of independents
called CNIP (National Center of Independents and Peasants),
which was formed in 1948 but functioned more as a
parliamentary group than as a political party. Giscard
d'Estaing, one of the leading figures in the CNIP, organized
some members into a political party (the National Federation
of Independent Republicans, FNRI) in June 1966. Although
Giscard d'Estaing technically severed his affiliation with
FNRI in 1974 after being elected to the presidency
(Political Handbook of the World, 1978, p. 167), the party
was still known as "Giscardien" (Frears 1977, p. 60). In
1977, the FNRI was joined by smaller pro-Giscard groups to
form the Republican Party (PR), which is an electoral
alliance with the CDS and a group of Radicals, forming the
Union for French Democracy (UDF) as a common designation for
non-Gaullist majority candidates. Although this alliance was
formalized in March as a federation of constituent parties,
the PR is regarded as having preserved its identity.

Summary

Thus, the three strongest parties from our original study
remained strong in 1979, holding the. same general positions
as in the 1960s. The Gaullist Party, though having lost
strength, was still the largest single party in the
assembly. The Socialist and Communist continued to divide
the leftist vote almost evenly but both with larger shares.
Opposed to the growing leftist opposition was a center-right
"majority" bloc of Gaullists, Republicans, and the
Democratic Center (the latter two groups were allied in the
Union for French Democracy). Despite the confusing changes
of party names primarily in the center and on the right and
the procession of electoral alliances on both the left and
the right, some important continuities can be found in
French party politics amidst the considerable changes.

1. Our study of party politics in France
is based on a file of 2,844 pages from 92 documents, all
of which are in English (see Table 1.3). The
bibliographic search and indexing of material for the
file was done by Judith Newsome Gillespie, Jean
Jacobsohn, and Marcelino Miyares. The MRP was coded by
Carol Ostheimer, David Leibowitz, Barbara Seeder, and
Kenneth Janda. The Radical Socialist Party was coded by
Maurice Farbstein, Phillip Lentz, Gregory Kenzewski, and
Janda. Farbstein also coded the SFIO, aided by Laurie
Etkin and Tony Bianchi. Seeder, Paula Harris, Ronnie
Glasner, and Janda coded the Gaullists. Farbstein coded
the Communist Party. Kay Lawson was our
consultant.